Researching Indian culture for inspiration

[Yukio Masachita]

Hello.

I've been researching a little bit on Indian culture such as village life and parts of the Hindu religion, particularly the caste system.

You see, I'm writing this novel which is a fantasy story set in an alternate history where, following a religious war, more than a third of the world is conquered by forces that follow a Hindu-esque religion combined with elements of Buddhism and Taoism.

The main character is a young girl who finds on her fifteenth birthday that she has supernatural powers and was prophecised to be her peoples messianic figure who "bears the foetus of the new world without suffering".
However, exercising her free will, she feels something isn't right as dissillusionment sets in.

Just so you know, this isn't a pro-eastern mysticism story like Akira and other stories which are so as there will be Christian themes explored in a way that conflicts with Hinduism and other Eastern religions. The only spoiler I'm giving out is that she does whole heartedly refuse her role as the peoples so-called "messiah" and believe in Christian values and even give herself to a monotheistic God.

Anyway, onto inspiration: About the caste system, I read that Brahmins are descended from Europeans or something like that so they have fairer skin than lower-caste Hindus. The thing is, the main character and her twin sister have fair skin, suggesting they're of a high caste, however they live with a community of lower-caste citizens and they think they're low-caste until they learn the truth. So I'm not entirely sure of how society would react to this until then.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.